ON  SEEING  AN 
ELIZABETHAN  PLAY 


with 


THE  KNIGHT  OF  THE 
BURN  ING    PESTLE 


EXJIBKG  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA^ 


JOHN  HENRY  NASH  LIBRARY 

<§>  SAN  FRANCISCO  <$> 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

ROBERT  GORDON  SPROUL,  PRESIDENT. 
*    BY  «> 

MR.ANDMRS.MILTON  S.RAY" 
CECILY,  VIRGINIA ANDROSALYN  RAY 

AND  THE 

RAY  OIL  BURNER  COMPANY 


SAN  FRANCISCO 
NEW  YORK 


THE  TRVE  H1STORIE 
of  the, 

KNYGHT  OF  THJE  BvRNiNG PESTLE 

fvll  ofMirtKe  &,DeligKt 

GENT. 
AND 


Firft  pleaed.fc.bout  iKeYear  <jf  ovrLord,l6io 


JBooAe 

*d  by  TU  EnghfK  Clvb 
Stafford     Uix'iuerfily 


duding  a  compendiovs  DifkotJrfe  civ 
n  £ JjzabetAa.il  Play, 
vvord^  ^  mvfjdc  of  ma^ie  plea/aunt  /ongcj 
fung  uv  »Kc  Pldie    ajid  a  m>lable  Accovnt  of 
YOUNG  GALLANT  SHOVLD  BEHAVE 
APbAY-HousE   reprinted  from  Vhe 
C  vJJs  Horn  e-J3  oo£  by 

T. DECKAR. 


Printed    lor  P^ulElderAnd    M 
Franc* 'f  co. 
1903 


The  Tomoye  Press 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 


CONTENTS 

ON  SEEING  AN  ELIZABETHAN  PLAY        -  5 

The  Theatre                                        -          -  7 

The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle            -  1 5 

The  Songs  and  Music       -  21 

SONGS       ---  ...37 

Jolly  Red  Nose        -  38 
Walsingham        -                                                  "39 

Tell  Me,  Dearest      ...                    -  40 

Go  from  my  Window                                             -  41 

Dirge  42 

Fortune  my  Foe                               -                     ~  43 

Hey,  ho  44 

THE  GULL'S  HORN-BOOK  :   Reprint  of  Chapter  VI, 

on  How  a  Gallant  should  behave  himself  in  a 

Play-house         -----  47 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Francis  Beaumont  -       Frontis 

The  Bankside,  showing  Swan  Theatre  (from 

an  old  print)  -  -  17 

Interior  of  Swan  Theatre,  from  Sketch  of 

De  Witt,  1596  46 


ON  SEEING  AN 
ELIZABETHAN  PLAY. 


NY  drama  of  Shakspere's 
is  at  once  two  quite  dif- 
ferent things:  the  record 
of  a  play  once  performed 
on  an  Elizabethan  stage, 
and  a  piece  of  dramatic 
(usually  also  poetic)  lit- 
erature. This  twofold 
character  requires  a  twofold  standard  of  ap- 
preciation. It  is  no  doubt  just  that  the 
ordinary  reader  should  look  at  a  Shaksperean 
play  primarily  as  a  permanent  piece  of  liter- 
ature, whose  value  is  in  no  way  dependent 
upon  the  conditions  of  its  original  presenta- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  in  order  really  to 
understand  it  as  a  drama  one  must  consider 
it  as  written  to  be  spoken  and  aded  rather 


On    Seeing   an    Elizabethan    Play 

than  read ;  and  in  order  to  understand  its 
connection  with  the  Elizabethan  age,  one 
must  view  it  as  produced  in  the  Elizabethan 
theatre. 

This  means  that,  once  in  a  while  at  least, 
we  should  put  aside  our  conception  of  these 
dramas  as  existing  on  the  printed  page;  and 
more,  put  aside  our  conception  of  them  as 
presented  with  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance 
of  a  modern  theatre,  staged  and  costumed  by 
Sir  Henry  Irving  or  Mr.  Beerbohm  Tree; 
trying  to  see  in  place  of  all  this  the  compara- 
tively barren  and  primitive  stage  of  Eliza- 
bethan days,  with  its  boy  acftors,  its  garish 
daylight,  its  intruding  spectators,  its  simple 
but  merry  music,  its  magnificence  wholly 
centered  in  the  words  of  its  plays.  It  is  the 
objeCt  of  this  little  book,  and  of  the  presen- 
tation of  the  early  play  with  which  it  is 
associated,  to  help  the  modern  reader  to  this 
mental  vision  of  the  Elizabethan  theatre. 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 


The  Theatre. 

JlHE  Elizabethan  theatres 
were  located  outside  the 
limits  of  the  city  corpor- 
ation of  London,  being 
viewed  with  some  suspi- 
cion as  places  of  question- 
able repute  like  the  gar- 
dens for  bear-baiting, 
bull-baiting  and  the  like ;  and  sports  of  this 
kind  sometimes  shared  the  same  building 
with  the  plays.  The  early  playhouses,  such 
as  the  Theatre  and  the  Curtain,  were  "in  the 
fields "  beyond  the  city  limits;  the  later  and 
more  notable  ones,  such  as  the  Globe  and 
the  Swan,  were  on  the  Bankside,  across  the 
Thames,  and  patrons  came  to  the  plays  very 
largely  in  boats  and  barges.  Dekker,  in  the 
chapter  of  the  Gull's  Horn-book  reprinted  in 
this  book,  describes  the  proper  condud  of  a 
young  gentleman  in  hiring  his  boatman  for 
a  trip  across  to  a  play. 

The  playhouse  was  a  high  structure,  usu- 
ally circular  or — more  properly  speaking — 
octagonal  in  shape,  with  the  central  portion 


On    Seeing   an    Elizabethan    Play 

open  to  the  sky.  Outside  one  saw  only  the 
few  high  windows,  and  the  roof  of  the  stage 
building  lifting  itself  up  from  the  center, 
with  a  flag  flying  over  it  when  a  play  was  on 
the  boards.  Inside  there  was  a  great  central 
space  or  pit,  open  to  the  sky  and  without 
seats,  where  stood  the  "groundlings"  who 
paid  only  the  admittance  fee — sometifnes  as 
low  as  twopence  or  perhaps  even  a  penny. 
Those  who  could  afford  better  places,  six- 
penny or  twelve-penny  "rooms/'  were  seated 
in  the  orchestra  or  circular  gallery  running 
around  the  pit  and  just  above  the  level  of 
the  stage;  still  others  in  the  covered  balconies 
above  it.  In  case  of  rain  these  spectators,  as 
well  as  the  players,  had  some  shelter;  the 
groundlings  could  only  "let  it  rain." 

Such  general  fa<5ts  as  these  have  been 
gradually  collected  from  scattered  allusions 
in  the  dramas  of  the  age  of  Shakspere,  for 
no  one  in  those  days  had  the  forethought  to 
sit  down  and  write  out  for  us  a  connected 
description  of  a  contemporary  theatre.  But 
in  1596  or  thereabouts  a  Dutch  scholar, 
named  Johannes  deWitt,  visited  London  and 
made  a  rough  drawing  of  the  interior  of  the 
Swan  Theatre,  the  finest  of  that  day.  A 
copy  of  this  sketch  was  found  in  Utrecht  by 

8 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

Dr.  Karl  Gaedertz,  some  fifteen  years  ago, 
and  gave  the  modern  world  its  first  real 
glimpse  into  the  interior  of  an  Elizabethan 
theatre.  Meantime,  a  number  of  pidtures 
of  the  theatres  from  the  outside  have  been 
preserved  in  sketches  of  the  Bankside  region 
in  the  period.  We  are  fortunately  able  to 
reproduce  here  the  views  of  both  the  exterior 
and  the  interior  of  the  Swan.  This  play- 
house (really  sumptuous  for  its  day)  was  still 
in  use  in  1610,  and  although  there  is  some 
probability  that  The  Knight  of  the  Burning 
Pestle  was  first  produced  in  the  neighboring 
theatre  of  Whitefriars,  we  have  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  its  original  surroundings  were 
markedly  different  from  those  indicated  in 
these  drawings. 

The  stage  built  for  the  present  rendering 
of  the  Knight  is  an  attempt  to  reproduce  as 
accurately  as  possible  the  conditions  of  the 
Elizabethan  playhouse.  It  shows  the  stage 
structure  up  to  the  very  eaves  of  the  roof, 
which  must  be  conceived  of  as  sloping  away 
into  the  open  sky.  The  stage  itself  is  ap- 
proximately square,  and  extends  into  the  pit 
so  that  the  groundlings  can  look  over  the 
sides  of  it  as  well  as  the  front.  The  rear 
portion  is  covered  by  a  rpof  supported  at 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

the  front  by  two  carved  pillars ;  so  that  the 
whole  stage  is  in  a  sense  divided  into  two 
parts,  and  these  may  be  separated  by  a  cur- 
tain when  the  scene  requires  it.  There  are 
rushes  on  the  floor,  and  arras  hangings  at 
either  'side,  which  on  occasion  may  supple- 
ment the  two  doors  ordinarily  used  for  all 
entrances  and  exits.  Behind  this  arras,  it 
will  be  remembered,  Polonius  was  killed  by 
Hamlet;  and  in  the  present  play  Jasper's 
ghost  appears  from  the  same  hiding. 

Over  the  stage  doors  is  the  balcony  where 
Juliet  was  doubtless  wooed  by  night,  and 
where  now  Merrythought  will  appear  to  sing 
his  famous  song,  "Go  from  my  window." 
On  this  balcony,  too,  when  it  is  not  required 
for  adion,  players  at  leisure,  or  restless  young 
gentlemen  from  the  audience,  may  lounge 
and  get  a  view  of  -  the  stage  from  the  rear. 
Normally,  the  background  of  the  stage 
represents  the  exterior  of  a  house ;  but  by 
dropping  a  tapestry  hanging  over  the  balcony 
it  is  easily  changed  to  an  interior  scene,  and 
the  doors  are  then  to  be  conceived  of  as 
leading  outward  rather  than  inward.  Back 
of  these  doors  is  the  "  tiring-house "  and 
property-room,  but  this  of  course  is  hidden 
from  the  ordinary  spectator. 

IO 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

The  scenery  is  slight  enough,  judged  by 
modern  standards.  The  name  of  the  play 
hangs  overhead,  that  no  one  may  mistake 
it;  and  when  convenient  the  place  is  also 
indicated  by  a  sign.  The  diredions  which 
have  come  down  to  us  with  one  old  play 
( of  1 603 )  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  if  any  of 
the  properties  "will  not  serve  the  turne  by 
reason  of  condirse  of  the  People  on  the 
Stage,  Then  you  may  omitt  the  sayd  Prop- 
erties which  be  outward  and  supplye  their 
Places  with  their'  Nuncupations  onely  in 
Text  Letters."  Yet  on  the  other  hand  some 
theatrical  managers  must  have  exhibited  no 
little  enterprise  in  presenting  interesting 
"properties/'  and  the  court  plays  under  the 
diredion  of  the  Master  of  the  Revels  were  often 
brilliantly  staged.  The  accounts  of  Philip 
Henslowe,  the  most  notable  of  the  managers, 
include  such  properties  as  these :  "  i  rocke,  i 
cage,  i  tombe,"  "ii  stepells  and  i  chyme  of 
belles,"  "i  baye  tree,"  "ii  mose  banckes,  and 
snake,"  "i  chayne  of  dragons,"  "i  great 
horse  with  his  leages,"  "i  black  dogge." 
And  in  the  Induction  to  Jonson's  Cynthia  s 
Revels  one  of  the  boys  exclaims:  "The  boy 
takes  me  for  a  piece  of  perspective  or  some 
silk  curtain,  come  to  hang  the  stage  here ! " 

1 1 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

We  may  assume,  then,  that  not  all  the  play- 
house stages  looked  as  bare  as  that  of  the 
Swan  in  de  Witt's  drawing.  Yet  the  num- 
erous changes  of  scene  in  a  single  aft  of  an 
Elizabethan  play  are  sufficient  to  show  that 
there  could  be  no  elaborate  scene-shifting, 
and  it  is  certain  that  scenes  of  battle  and  the 
like  were  represented  only  in  a  symbolical 
fashion.  Shakspere,  in  the  famous  Prologue 
to  Henry  V.,  laments  the  limitations  of  his 
theatre : 

"Can  this  cockpit  hold 
The  vasty  fields  of  France  ?  or  may  we  cram 
Within  this  wooden  O  the  very  casques 
That  did  affright  the  air  at  Agincourt  ? 
O  pardon  !  since  a  crooked  figure  may 
Attest  in  little  place  a  million  ; 
And  let  us,  ciphers  to  this  great  accompt, 
On  your  imaginary  forces  work.  .  . 
Piece  out  our.  imperfections  with  your  thoughts  ; 
Into  a  thousand  parts  divide  one  man, 
And  make  imaginary  puissance  ; 
Think,  when  we  talk  of  horses,  that  you  see  them 
Printing  their  proud  hoofs  i'  the  receiving  earth  ; 
For  'tis  your  thoughts  that  now  must  deck  our  kings." 

It  is  a  fair  question,  indeed,  whether  the 
want  of  adequate  scenery  and  properties  was 
not  more  of  a  blessing  than  otherwise.  The 
imagination  was  trained  to  its  highest  reaches 
when  there  was  little  realism  for  the  eye; 

12 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

and  Mr.  Collier  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that 
"  the  introduction  of  scenery  gives  the  date 
to  the  comrhencement  of  the  decline  of  our 
dramatic  poetry/' 

At  the  very  edge  of  the  stage  we  have  a 
glimpse  of  one  of  the  "lords'  rooms,"  or 
twelve-penny  boxes,  where  the  aristocrats 
disport  themselves  in  what  Dekker  calls  u  the 
suburbs  of  the  stage."  But  the  young  gal- 
lants of  the  period,  not  content  with  that, 
occupy  the  stage  itself.  For  an  extra  six- 
pence they  are  admitted  through  the  tiring- 
house,  and  the  boys  will  then  rent  them 
stools  for  sitting  in  full  view  of  the  audience. 
Here  the  grocer  and  his  wife,  in  the  present 
play,  soon  join  them,  although  they  had 
originally  intended  to  be  content  among  the 
groundlings.  The  literature  of  the  age  of 
Shakspere  is  full  of  allusions  to  these  young 
gallants  on  the  stage,  who  seem  often  to  have 
engrossed  hardly  less  attention  than  the  play- 
ers. But  the  classic  account  of  them,  and 
of  their  conduft,  is  found  in  Dekker's  Gull's 
Horn-booky  published  probably  within  a  year 
of  the  first  presentation  of  The  Knight  of  the 
Burning  Pestle;  the  chapter  dealing  with  the 
playhouse  is  reproduced  in  full  below. 

Over  the  adtors'  tiring-house,  and  above 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan   Play 

and  beyond  the  roof  of  the  stage,  is  the  ele- 
vated lodge  or  tower  which  can  also  be  seen 
from  outside  the  theatre.  Here  some  of  the 
drop-scenes  appear  to  have  been  kept;  from 
here,  in  one  play  of  1592,  Venus  was  per- 
haps "let  down  from  the  top  of  the  stage"; 
and  in  the  door  or  window  of  this  lodge 
appears  the  trumpeter  who  announces  the 
time  for  the  play  to  begin.  It  is  three  o'clock 
of  the  afternoon.  The  pit  is  already  full 
of  spectators,  talking  and  cracking  nuts 
together,  wondering  —  it  may  be — why  the 
sign  over  the  stage  reads  "The  London 
Merchant"  when  the  playbills  all  about 
town  announced  "The  Knight  of  the  Burn- 
ing Pestle."  Boatloads  of  later  comers  are 
hurrying  over  the  Thames,  and  they  can  not 
only  hear  the  trumpet  from  the  tower  but 
perhaps  see  the  flag  hanging  from  it.  When 
it  has  sounded  twice  you  may  see  the  young 
gallants  and  their  pages  coming  on  the  stage, 
lighting  their  tobacco  and  settling  themselves 
to  show  their  cloaks  to  the  best  advantage, 
while  the  aristocrats  in  the  boxes  do  the 
same.  There  is  a  murmur  of  expectation; 
then  a  third  blast  from  the  tower ;  and  the 
Prologue  boy,  in  cloak  and  wreath,  comes 
on  to  introduce  the  play. 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle. 

HIS  comedy  is  either  the 
joint  work  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher,under  whose 
names  it  was  published,  or 
(more  probably)  the  work 
of  Beaumont  alone;  and 
it  dates  from  the  period 
when  these  two  young 
dramatists  were  entering  upon  their  career  as 
the  successors  of  Shakspere  on  the  popular 
London  stage.  Indeed,  it  may  have  been 
first  produced  in  the  same  year  with  Shaks- 
pere's  Tempest,  that  is,  about  1610.  Again 
we  hear  of  it  in  1635,  as  "a&ed  by  Her 
Majesty's  Servants  at  the  Private  House  in 
Drury  Lane";  and  yet  again  thirty  years 
later,  in  the  gay  days  of  the  Restoration,  with 
a  leading  part  taken  by  Nell  Gwynn,  the  fav- 
orite of  Charles  II.  The  first  edition  of  the 
play  was  printed  in  1613,  and  a  copy  of  this 
quarto  can  be  seen  in  the  Public  Library  of 
Boston. 

In  the  stru&ure  of  the  comedy  the  most 
striking  feature  is  that  it  opens  with  an  In- 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

duftion,  or  introduction,  presenting  a  scene 
in  the  theatre  immediately  preceding  the 
opening  of  the  play.  This  was  a  familiar 
device  on  the  Elizabethan  stage,  when  the 
dramatist  wished  to  include  some  comment 
on  his  play.  Thus  Jonson,  in  Every  Man 
out  of  bis  Humour •,  introduces  three  gentle- 
men critics  in  an  Indudtion,  who  discuss  the 
play  before  the  last  sounding  of  the  trumpet; 
and  in  Cynthia  s  Revels  he  introduces  some 
of  the  boy-a&ors,  who  reveal  the  plot.  In 
a  sense,  then,  the  Induction  provides  a  play 
within  a  play,  though  in  a  different  manner 
from  that  of  Hamlet  or  Cyrano  de  Bergerac. 
In  The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle  the  use 
of  the  Induction  is  quite  unique  in  the  per- 
iod. Here  the  spectators  who  comment  on 
the  play  are  not  critics  representing  the  plans 
or  opinions  of  the  author,  but  vulgar  citizens 
of  London,  representing  the  misplaced  and 
unintelligent  appreciation  which  must  often 
have  tried  the  soul  of  the  playwright.  They 
not  only  discuss  the  progress  of  the  play  in 
delightfully  nai've  burlesque,  but  insist  on 
the  altering  of  the  plot  in  the  interest  of 
their  part  of  the  audience.  The  cleverness 
with  which  this  device  is  carried  out  makes 
The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle — if  we  ex- 

16 


td 


C/3 

o 

1 


H 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

cept  the  "Pyramus  and  Thisbe"  scenes  of 
the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream— the  king 
of  the  English  burlesque  drama  (Bucking- 
ham's Rehearsal,  Fielding's  Tom  Thumb, 
Sheridan's  Critic,  and  Canning's  Rovers  per- 
haps contending  for  next  place).  Not-only 
does  its  Induction  bring  out  with  unusual 
clearness  the  stage  conditions  of  the  period, 
but  its  comic  effefts  are  unusually  clear  and 
effective — without  annotation— for  a  modern 
audience.*  In  three  centuries  the  salt  of  its 
wit  has  not  lost  its  savor. 

The  strufture  of  the  dramk  is  clear  but 
complex.  The  players  are  about  to  present 
a  romantic  comedy  called  "  The  London 
Merchant,"  giving  the  story  of  the  trials  and 
triumphs  of  an  apprentice  in  love  with  his 
master's  daughter.  But  a  grocer  in  the  audi- 
ence suspe6ts  from  the  title  that  the  play  is 
to  satirize  the  London  citizens,  and  insists 
that  it  shall  be  altered  to  the  "honor  and 
glory  of  all  grocers."  His  wife  joins  him, 
and  proposes  that  their  apprentice  Ralph 
shall  take  the  part  of  the  grocer-hero.  Ralph 
is  therefore  interposed  as  an  aftor,  and  the 
name  of  the  play  is  changed  to  "The  Knight 
of  the  Burning  Pestle."  The  original  plot  is 
carried  on  as  far  as  practicable,  but  an  inter- 

18 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

woven  plot  is  extemporized  by  the  players, 
in  which  Ralph  appears  as  a  kind  of  Don 
Quixote  or  benevolent  knight-errant,  his  for- 
tunes crossing  with  those  of  the  persons  in 
the  romance  of  the  London  merchant.  So 
the  two  sorts  of  scenes  move  on  inconsist- 
ently but  not  irreconcilably,  interrupted  by 
occasional  demands  from  the  grocer  and  his 
wife  that  the  apprentice-ador  shall  play  a 
more  conspicuous  part.  The  introduction 
of  a  May-day  scene  of  the  period,  which — 
though  wholly  irrelevant — we  should  be 
sorry  to  miss,  we  owe  entirely  to  their  inter- 
vention. But  such  is  the  skill  of  the  dram- 
atist that  this  intervening  burlesque  element 
is  not  allowed  to  affed:  the  interest  of  the 
story  of  the  lovers,  which  rises  rapidly  to  a 
climax  in  the  "coffin  scene"  of  the  last  a6t. 
Beaumont  not  only  pokes  fun  at  his 
London  audience,  but  also  at  his  fellow 
dramatists  who  had  catered  to  its  desire  for 
the  sensational.  Thus  a  number  of  passages 
in  the  play  are  dire<5t  allusions  to  Heywood's 
Four  Prentices  of  London,  a  favorite  of  just 
this  period  in  which  some  London  appren- 
tices were  glorified  in  impossible  adventures. 
.The  satire  even  glances  upon  the  master 
and  glory  of  the  romantic  drama,  for  Ralph's 

19 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

recitation  in  the  Induction,  given  to  show 
his  ability  in  "a  huffing  part/'  is  substantially 
taken  from  a  ranting  speech  of  Hotspur's,  in 
the  First  Part  of  Shakspere's  Henry  IV* 

We  may  be  said,  then,  to  have  in  The 
Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle  three  plays  in 
one:  a  typical  Elizabethan  romance  of  ad- 
venture in  London  middle-class  life,  a  bur- 
lesque of  the  exaggerated  romance  popular 
in  the  period,  and  a  satire  on  the  limited 
capacity  and  the  unreasonable  demands  of 
the  theatre-going  public. 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 


The  Songs  and  Music. 

WHETHER  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  mere  au- 
ditor or  that  of  an  anti- 
quarian, the  songs  in 
The  Knight  of  the  Burning 
Pestle  constitute  one  of 
the  most  attractive  ele- 
ments in  the  play. 
Those  of  Merrythought  alone,  as  Professor 
Ward  observes,  form  a  veritable  "  Bacchana- 
lian anthology/'  By  no  means  all  the  songs 
are  original, —  possibly  none  of  them;  and 
the  wide  range  of  their  character  and  sources 
illustrates  interestingly  the  place  of  Eliza- 
bethan stage-songs  in  general. 

It  was  a  time  overflowing  with  lyrical 
spontaneity,  and  the  production  of  songs  — 
both  words  and  music — was  at  a  level  which 
England  has  not  seen  before  or  since.  As 
Chappell  says  in  his  Old  English  Popular 
Music:  "Tinkers  sang  catches ;  milkmaids 
sang  ballads ;  carters  whistled ;  each  trade, 
and  even  the  beggars,  had  their  special 
songs;  the  base-viol  hung  in  the  drawing- 

21 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

room  for  the  amusement  of  waiting  visitors ; 
and  the  lute,  cittern,  and  virginals,  for  the 
amusement  of  waiting  customers,  were  the 
necessary  furniture  of  the  barber's  shop. 
They  had  music  at  dinner;  music  at  supper; 
music  at  weddings ;  music  at  funerals ;  music 
at  night;  music  at  dawn;  music  at  work; 
and  music  at  play." 

Naturally  the  best  of  the  popular  songs 
would  be  in  demand  for  use  on  the  stage, 
and  would  be  revised  and  adapted  to  various 
forms.  The  question  of  authorship  was 
very  frequently  neglefted,  and  the  result  is 
that  we  find  the  same  songs  in  different 
forms  attributed  to  different  writers,  often 
with  no  possibility  of  clearing  up  the  fafts. 
Shakspere  seems  to  have  written  for  the 
particular  occasion  most  of  the  songs  in  his 
plays,  and  to  have  made  them — as  we 
should  have  expected — the  best  of  their' 
kind,  but  others  were  no  doubt  inserted  by 
him  or  his  company  as  the  taste  of  the  audi- 
ence or  the  repertoire  of  the  player  might 
suggest.  Thus  the  song  of  "willow"  which 
Desdemona  sings  in  Act  IV  of  Othello, — 

"The  poor  soul  sat  sighing  by  a  sycamore  tree," — 
was  doubtless  older  than  the  play,  and  has 

22 


'The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

come  down  in  various  forms.  The  music 
for  it  has  been  found  in  a  manuscript  of 
about  1600.  It  is  very  likely  that  Autoly- 
cus's  song  in  the  Winter  s  Tale  (Ad  IV, 
Scene  3 ), — 

"Jog  on,  jog  on,  the  foot-path  way," — 

was  also  already  familiar;  some  additional 
stanzas  of  it  are  found  in  a  seventeenth-cen- 
tury song-book.  The  well-known  song  of 
the  clown  at  the  close  of  Twelfth  Night ,  with 
the  burden  "hey,  ho,  the  wind  and  the 
rain/'  is  held  by  some  critics  to  have  been 
a  "jig"  song  introduced  by  the  clown  for 
the  benefit  of  the  groundlings  in  the  theatre, 
while  others  see  in  it  genuine  Shaksperean 
humor  and  philpsophy.  But  the  treasures 
of  song  in  these  dramas,  such  as  "  It  was  a 
lover  and  his  lass,"  "  Under  the  greenwood 
tree/'  "  Blow,  blow,  thou  winter  wind/'  and 
"Come  unto  these  yellow  sands,"  are  with- 
out doubt  the  work  of  the  master  himself, 
though  many  of  them  speedily  became  popu- 
lar ditties  when  once  made  known. 

In  the  present  play  the  character  of  Mer- 
rythought of  itself  suggests  that  his  songs 
are  not  new  ones;  he  remembers  scraps  of 
all  that  he  has  heard  sung,  and  they  come 

23 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan   Play 

tumbling  out  in  the  midst  of  his  conversa- 
tion, the  words  adapting  themselves  some- 
times most  admirably  to  the  immediate  situ- 
ation. In  some  cases  these  are  mere  frag- 
ments, evidently  of  popular  ballads,  and  we 
know  nothing  of  their  context;  in  other 
cases  he  repeats  well-known  songs  of  the' 
day.  In  Act  II,  Scene  8,  he  sings  a  bit  of 
the  old  ballad  of  Fair  Margaret  and  Sweet 
William,  found  in  Percy's  Reliques  of  An- 
cient  Poetry  and  other  ballad  collections : 

"  When  it  was  grown  to  dark  midnight, 

And  all  were  fast  asleep, 
In  came  Margaret's  grimly  ghost, 
And  stood  at  William's  feet." 

In  like  manner  the  fragment  in  the  same 
scene, — 

"  He  set  her  on  a  milk-white  steed, 

And  himself  upon  a  grey ; 
He  never  turned  his  face  again, 
But  he  bore  her  quite  away ;" — 

is  from  the  ballad  of  the  Douglas  Tragedy. 
A  little  later  Merrythought  sings  a  bit  from 
the  old  Legend  of  Sir  Guy : 

"  Was  never  man  for  lady's  sake 

Tormented  as  I  poor  Sir  Guy, 
For  Lucy's  sake,  that  lady  bright, 
As  ever  men  beheld  with  eye  ; " — 

24 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

sung  with  a  merry  burden  of  "down,  down, 
de  deny  down."  In  the  last  Act  (V,  Sc.  3  ) 
appears  still  another  ballad,  Little  Musgrave 
and  Lady  Barnard: 

*<  And  some  they  whistled,  and  some  they  sung, 

And  some  did  loudly  say, 
Ever  as  the  Lord  Barnet's  horn  blew, 
Away,  Musgrave,  away  ! ' ' 

These  ballads  are  all  easily  identified,  but 
there  are  other  fragments  which  Merry- 
thought could  perhaps  have  completed  but 
of  which  even  the  tireless  energy  of  the  late 
Professor  Child  could  find  nothing  more 
(for  his  monumental  ballad  collection)  than 
are  preserved  in  this  play.  Such  are  the 
verses  in  A<5t  II,  Scene  8 : 

"  She  cares  not  for  her  daddy,  nor 
She  cares  not  for  her  mammy, 
For  she  is,  she  is,  she  is,  she  is 
My  lord  of  Lowgave's  lassy;" 

and  those  in  the  closing  scene : 

"  With  that  came  out  his  paramour; 
She  was  as  white  as  the  lily  flower : 

Hey,  troul,  troly,  loly! 
With  that  came  out  her  own  dear  knight ; 
He  was  as  true  as  ever  did  fight : 

Hey,  troul,  troly,  loly!" 

25 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

Besides  the  old  ballads,  Merrythought 
well  knew  the  more  sophisticated  songs  of 
the  day.  In  Ad  II,  Scene  8,  he  sings  a 
scrap  of  the  song  of  Three  Merry  Men, 
which  Sir  Toby  alludes  to,  in  very  similar 
mood,  in  the  famous  bacchanalian  scene  in 
Twelfth  Night.  In  the  closing  scene,  again, 
he  uses  a  bit  from  one  of  Morley's  song- 
books  (published  1600): 

"  Sing  we,  and  chant  it, 
Whilst  love  doth  grant  it." 

In  other  cases  we  know  nothing  of  the  song 
save  what  appears  in  this  play.  Thus  in  Ad: 
II,  Scene  5,  Merrythought  sings  a  character- 
istic ditty  which  has  every  appearance  of 
being  a  scrap  of  a  popular  song  of  the  day: 

"  If  you  will  sing,  and  dance,  and  laugh, 

And  hollow,  and  laugh  again, 
And  then  cry,  'there,  boys,  there!'  why,  then, 
One,  two,  three,  and  four, 
We  shall  be  merry  within  this  hour." 

The  same  is  true  of  the  fragments  like  "You 
are  no  love  for  me,  Margaret/'  "You  shall 
go  no  more  a-maying,"  and  "Thou  wast  a 
bonny  boy/' 

In  Ad  II,  Scene  8,  Merrythought  sings 

26 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

a  song  which  may  perhaps  be  original  to 
this  play: 

"  'Tis  mirth  that  fills  the  veins  with  blood, 
More  than  wine,  or  sleep,  or  food; 
Let  each  man  keep  his  heart  at  ease, — 
No  man  dies  of  that  disease. 
He  that  would  his  body  keep 
From  diseases,  must  not  weep. 
But  whoever  laughs  and  sings, 
Never  he  his  body  brings 
Into  fevers,  gouts,  or  rheums, 
Or  lingeringly  his  lungs  consumes ; 
But  contented  lives  for  aye; 
The  more  he  laughs  the  more  he  may." 

It  is  possible  that  this  is  a  part  of  the  same 
song  as  that  with  which  the  play  closes, 
"Better  Music  ne'er  was  Known ";  at  any 
rate  it  can  be  sung  to  the  same  tune.  The 
most  interesting  of  the  songs  of  Merry- 
thought and  his  friends  will  be  found  below 
in  connection  with  the  music  reproduced 
from  that  used  in  this  presentation. 

There  is  yet  one  song  introduced  in  the 
last  scene,  of  a  different  character  from  any 
of  the  others.  This  is  the  moral  ballad  be- 
ginning "It  was  a  lady's  daughter,"  which 
the  boy  Michael  has  learned  and  sings  in 
behalf  of  his  mother,  when  Merrythought 
exads  a  song  from  her  before  he  will  open 

27 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

the  door.  The  text  of  the  play  gives  only 
the  first  line,  but  the  whole  ballad  has  been 
preserved,  and  is  said  to  have  been  sung  to 
the  tune  "O  man  in  desperation/'  Obvi- 
ously Michael  had  not  studied  in  his  father's 
school  of  singing.  The  first  stanza  of  the 
song  is  this: 

ff  It  was  a  lady's  daughter, 

Of  Paris  properly, 
Her  mother  her  commanded 

To  mass  that  she  should  hie : 
O  pardon  me,  dear  mother, 

Her  daughter  dear  did  say, 
Unto  that  filthy  idol 

I  never  can  obey." 

We  have  seen  that  the  music  of  the  age 
of  Shakspere  was  as  abundant  as  the  lyrics, 
though  not  quite  so  much  to  our  taste. 
Fortunately  a  considerable  amount  of  it  has 
been  preserved  to  our  time.  A  good  deal 
of  this  is  in  manuscripts  prepared  for  players 
on  the  lute  and  virginals,  and  a  good  deal  in 
published  volumes.  Thus  in  1 609  appeared 
Ravenscroft's  "Pammelia.  Musick's  Mis- 
cellanie  or  Mixed  Varietie  of  Pleasant  Roun- 
delay es,  and  Delightful  Catches,  of  3,  4,  5, 
6>  7>  8,  9,  10  Parts  in  one,"  followed  in  the 
next  year  by  his  "  Deuteromelia,  or  the 

28 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

Second  Part  of  Musick's  Melodic."  In 
1610  also  appeared  W.  Corkine's  First  Book 
of  Ayres  for  the  lute.  The  Knight  of  the 
Burning  Pestle,  therefore,  was  written  at  a 
time  when  the  interest  in  song  and  music 
was  at  its  height,  and,  we  may  add,  when  the 
quality  of  English  lyrical  music  was  also  not 
far  from  its  best.  There  is  no  space  here 
for  the  discussion  of  the  characteristics  of 
this  music,  which  it  is  hoped  may  be  not 
unfairly  represented  in  that  reproduced  from 
the  songs  in  the  present  play.  The  preva- 
lence of  the  minor  keys  will  strike  the  atten- 
tion of  the  most  casual  observer;  one  might 
almost  say  that  the  relative  prominence  of 
the  major  and  minor  scales,  as  compared 
with  our  own  time,  was  reversed.  But  this 
does  not  prevent  a  haunting  gaiety  which 
causes  many  of  the  songs  to  linger  in  the 
ear  with  friendly  persistence. 

Modern  students  of  this  early  music  are 
chiefly  indebted  to  the  great  collection  of 
Chappell,  Old  English  Popular  Music ,  1859, 
re-edited  by  Mr.  Ellis  Wooldridge  in  1893. 
Here  the  best  of  the  Elizabethan  songs  are 
reproduced  for  us,  and  nearly  all  the  music 
used  in  this  presentation  of  The  Knight  of  the 
Burning  Pestle  is  found  in  this  collection.  The 

29 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

majority  of  the  songs  of  the  age  of  Shaks- 
pere  have  come  down  to  us  in  one  part  only, 
or  with  harmony  not  adapted  to  modern  in- 
struments; but  Mr.  Wooldridge  has  sup- 
plied accompaniments,  in  such  cases,  "in 
which  both  the  restrictions  observed  and  the 
allowances  taken  are  according  to  the  prac- 
tice of  English  musicians  of  the  latter  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century/'  So  far  as  is  possi- 
ble, then,  under  the  changed  conditions,  we 
may  have  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  again 
the  very  music  which  charmed  the  audiences 
at  the  Swan  and  the  Globe. 

Instrumental  music  also  played  some  part 
in  the  presentation  of  Elizabethan  dramas, 
and  in  The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle  there 
is  considerable  testimony  to  its  use.  The 
orchestra  was  no  doubt  often  a  slight  affair, 
but  in  a  play  of  1606  we  have  directions 
calling  for  "cornets  and  organs'*  after  one 
aCt,  "organs,  viols,  and  voices"  after  an- 
other, and  "a -base  lute  and  a  treble  viol" 
after  a  third.  Sometimes  the  music  between 
the  ads  is  indicated  by  the  rubric:  "Here 
they  knockt  up  the  Consort."  In  the  pres-^ 
ent  play  we  hear  only  of  fiddlers,  though 
the  grocer  expresses  a  desire  for  shawms. 
"  Lachrymae,"  the  tune  desired  by  the 

3° 


'The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

grocer's  wife  at  the  end  of  the  second  ad, 
was  by  the  Elizabethan  composer  Dowland, 
and  is  found  in  the  virginal  book  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  herself.  Another  favorite  of  the 
period  was  "Green  Sleeves/' — the  tune  to 
which  Falstaff  said  it  might  thunder  when 
the  sky  rained  potatoes.  It  is  one  of  those 
reproduced  by  the  players  between  the  ads 
of  the  present  performance  of  The  Knight  of 
the  Burning  Pestle. 

It  remains  only  to  add  a  few  notes  on  the 
songs  of  which  the  music  is  reproduced  in 
the  following  pages. 

The  song  with  which  Merrythought  first 
appears,  in  Act  I,  Scene  4  ("Nose,  nose, 
jolly  red  nose"),  was  a  merry  refrain  which 
may  have  been  used  with  various  songs.  In 
the  Deuteromelia  of  1609,  among  the  "Songs 
to  three  voices/'  it  appears  as  the  conclusion 
to  this  ditty: 

"  Of  all  the  Birds  that  ever  I  see, 

The  Owle  is  the  fayrest  in  her  degree: 
For  all  the  day  long  she  sits  in  a  tree, 
And  when  the  night  comes  away  flies  she." 

The  fragment  from  the  ballad  of  Walsing- 
ham,  sung  by  Merrythought  in  Ad  II, 
Scene  8,  is  of  no  little  interest.  There  were 

31 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

various  versions  of  the  ballad,  as  commonly, 
and  it  is  found  in  the  old  Pepsyian  collection 
and  in  Percy's  Rcliques  of  Ancient  Poetry. 
"The  tune/'  says  Chappell,  "is  frequently 
mentioned  by  writers  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  and  from  several  of 
these  references  we  find  that  it  was  common- 
ly taught  to  singing  birds/'  It  was  pub- 
lished at  least  as  early  as  1596,  in  Barley's 
New  Book  of  ^TabliturC)  and  is  also  found  in 
various  manuscript  music-books  prepared  for 
the  lute  or  virginals.  The  closing  measures 
are  of  some  particular  interest  to  musicians, 
owing  to  the  "sudden  appearance  of  the 
major  third  in  a  minor  scale."  Says  Mr. 
Wooldridge:  "The  penultimate  bar  of  the 
melody  is  not  written  otherwise  than  as  I 
have  given  it  in  any  old  version  that  I  have 
seen," 

The  song  of  Jasper  and  Luce  in  the  wood 
(Ad:  III,  Scene  i )  is  perhaps  the  prettiest 
lyric  in  the  play,  and  we  have  no  reason 
to  doubt  its  originality.  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher  (or  Fletcher  alone)  used  it  again  in 
a  later  comedy,  The  Captain,  with  an  addi- 
tional but  inferior  stanza.  The  tune  to 
which  it  was  sung  is  not  known;  it  is  here 
set  to  the  music  of  a  song  called  "  What  if  a 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

Day?"  published  as  early  as  1603,  and  long 
a  favorite. 

Of  the  songs  of  Merrythought  there  is  no 
doubt  that  "Go  from  my  window"  (Ad: 
III,  Scene  5)  bears  the  palm.  It  is  a  par- 
ticular satisfaction  to  be  able  to  reproduce  the 
tune  to  which  this  was  undoubtedly  sung  in 
1610.  The  song  was  a  popular  one  of:  the 
time,  and  appears  in  various  versiori*^  in 
other  plays;  for  example,  in  Fletcher's  Earner 
Tamed  and  Middleton's  Blurt  Master  Con- 
stable. Whether  the  second  stanza  ("Be- 
gone, my  juggy,  my  puggy")  was  origi- 
nally a  part  of  the  same  ditty  is  uncertain; 
it  reappears  in  Heywood's  Rape  of  Lu- 
crecey  in  the  form  "Begone,  my  Willie, 
my  Billie."  The  melody  was  published  in 
Barley's  New  Book  of  Tabtiture^  1596, 
and  Robinson's  Scboole  of  Mustek,  1603, 
and  is  also  found  in  various  music  manu- 
scripts. 

The  dirge  sung  by  Luce  over  her  lover's 
coffin  (Ad  IV,  Scene  4)  may  be  an  original 
lyric,  although  certain  parts  of  it  were  con- 
ventional elements  of  such  songs  of  lamen- 
tation. Compare,  for  example,  Merry- 
thought's scrap  of  a  funeral  ballad  in  Ad 
II,  Scene  8  : 

33 


On    Seeing    an    Elizabethan    Play 

"  Give  him  flowers  enow,  palmer,  give  him 

flowers  enow  : 

Give  him  red,  and  white,  and  blue,  green 
and  yellow.'* 

There  is  no  indication  of  the  original  music 
for  the  present  dirge ;  that  adapted  for  this 
presentation  is  from  a  funeral  ballad  called 
"Essex's  Last  Good-night/'  found  in  some 
Elizabethan  manuscript  music  and  harmon- 
ized •  "by  Mr.  Wooldridge.  The  tune  was 
evidently  a  favorite  in  the  period  of  our  play. 
The  song  of  Venturewell,  required  of  him 
by  Merrythought  before  granting  him  admis- 
sion (in  Ad  V,  Scene  3),  is  of  no  little 
interest.  In  the  text  of  the  play  only  the 
title,  "  Fortune,  my  Foe/'  is  given ;  the 
words  were  too  familiar  to  require  printing. 
The  song  was  a  lugubrious  one,  but  evi- 
dently very  popular.  In  the  Merry  Pfives 
of  Windsor  (Aft  III,  Scene  3)  Falstaff  al- 
ludes to  it,  saying,  "  I  see  what  thou  wert, 
if  Fortune  thy  foe  were  not,"  and  it  figures 
in  many  other  plays  of  the  period.  Other 
songs,  too,  were  sung  to  the  same  tune, — all 
of  them  of  the  melancholy  order.  Hence 
the  point  of  making  this  the  only  ditty  which 
Venturewell  can  produce  after  the  defeat  of 
his  plans,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  gay 

34 


The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle 

songs  of  Merrythought  The  tune  was 
published  in  Corkine's  Instruction  Book  for 
the  Lutey  1610. 

The  closing  song  of  the  play,  in  which 
Merrythought  leads  most  of  the  other  char- 
acters, on  the  happy  conclusion  of  the  plot, 
is  perhaps  original ;  at  any  rate  it  admirably 
sums  up  the  philosophy  of  the  singer.  No 
music  has  come  down  in  conne&ion  with  it ; 
in  this  presentation  it  is  sung  to  a  tune  called 
"  Row  Well,  Ye  Mariners,"  published  with- 
out the  words  in  Robinson's  Schoole  of  Mu- 
sick,  1603,  and  harmonized  by  Mr.  Wool- 
dridge.  May  the  genial  optimism  of  both 
song  and  singer  descend  upon  all  who  share 
in  this  attempt  to  revive  some  merry  scenes 
of  the  olden  time ! 

R.  M.  A. 


35 


Jolly  Red  Nose 


73—         -*np —   ^     •--  « 

Nose  Nose  Nose  ar\&  wJio   <rave 


^ 


thee    th^t    lolly    red 

^      -^     >    rf      «.> 


Cinnamon  and  ginger   nu\m<&   and 

-"—-     — ~—>  >     **• 


^ 


W^s    «W   tttf/   gate    me  th&t 


^//y   rec/    //we 


Walsingham 


As  you  came   from   Wzlfingham 

.   /       i       ^-j  J      5j      ^i 


(°     H  ^  °  ^  T»      r^   t<>  9 


From  mat  noly   I   nd    Tl'frc  met  vou 

^|  _^l      /      ^          .^:  / 


~^- 


not  witn       y    7r 


rue       ove  _ 


By    the  wav^  aj    you  caroe  > 


Tell  Me,  Dearest 


^..^flU^M^V 

J  Tell  me  dtareft  wfut  Is  Low  ?  L  Tis 


yrc 


wVf>'v 
from  above  Tis  an  arrow   Tis  &  fire 


•'  ir-y  i       '"  ^^ 


p   »    » 


^ 


Tis  a  boy  they  CA!!  De/ue ,-  Tis  A  stifle 

r»rfirT     Oirrri 


^•>T'\  Tt  >    ^^ 


tile  j^  T^c  »oor  hearl$  oj  men  tlat  prow, . 
»      r    M         '    f  '  pi*l  ^     ^      ^ 


J  1^11  mr    more    aj-e  women  ttu«  * 

/    &^  1o*e  change     *nd  so  do  you 

7          -Are  they   Uir   *nd    n^xrf    kind  * 

X.  )k    when  men  turn  with   fh«  wind 

7  Are  fhey     froward  ? 

L.  5y«r  ioward 

Thc&r    UiAt    love      to    love    Anew. 


Go  from  my  Window 


m 


Go    from  my  window  .  love,   go  • 
^J       -^       •£*••  •*        A 


c 


=2±I 


Go  from  flie  window,  my  dear.    The 


wind  and  fna  riin  wjll  drive  you 

m 


again  .  You   cannot   fc>e  lodged  liere 


Be  gone    myivggy     mypvggy. 
'Begone    my  love  my  dear? 

The  wether  is  warm. 

Twill   do  thee  no  harm: 
Th®^   cansi  nol  be  )od<j€d    here 

o 


Dirge 


T  f  p  -f-1  T*  f  i*"  r  f 

Gorne.  aJI  you  who^e  loves  are  dead  and  whiles 


*iit 


z 


5^ 


<^  «L    «?. 


r^-r 

I  finj  TVcep  *iyd  vn  r\j  Every  han< 


^g 


^~i^  j  j.« 


Bind  jr//fc  t 

" 


d  Jdd  yew   J\ihan<is 
k"f^.JJJ 

'  MR! 


•       '  r  i*"  r 

cannier  L/tt«    Tbr  ])im  ihdJ  "VfAs   of  men   noft   tr 


Come  vrifh  hcatry 

And  on  his 

Let    him    Vj 
Sacrifice  of   fighs 
L«t  him   h*.^  UiT  flowers  enoj*. 
While  And  purpk.  green  And  yellow  . 
For  him   lha.twaj    ofrnfn    7T\oft  true 


Fortune  My  Foe 


£    E  y  '  g= 


Fortune,  mu  foe,w/iy  d°ft  fhou 


frown  on  me  ?  And  \vill  thy  f^vor    tieve 

-^t.     *L    i&          .       ^i.  _^  . 


tetter    be? Wilt    ihou    1    fay  forever 

' 


breed   my  pain 'And  wilt    thou 


H  »«^^ 

not  re/lore    my    7oTs    again7 


Hey,  ho! 


v-^      1          <?      J        <>      ^I'^(^            t°-         '         jfr  t* 

P_J       p  ^       p 

Better  mu/ic    ncer  WAS  known  TTvun  a 

fDk    TO  ^  ^>  .  1^    .">     p'   1  ^ 


<ivire  of  KwLrts  in  one.  Let   each  other 

yg  ^  _  ^^  w  ^     tf  _,    ^  j 


3B 


4- 


hath   been  Troubled  - 


^    . 


of  us     io  keep  his  trovr 


and 


.  as  ours  -tre   now, 

-^     ^        ^     »-^. 


Sing    (Ko    before    the  hour  <rf 

4 *L ^  <* .  .    .     »  ^     ^ 


«#- 


le^  y/u.//  rije      And    ^Ii//  fee  en 


T^ey     hoi     iis  ndiuoKt    but  mirfl)  Th 

.j7         -^          -^         -fi*-5         -«L^t          A 


Nach  ciner  in  Utrecht  befindlichen  Handzeichnung  vom  Jahrc  1596. 
Vtrlag  von  C.  Ed.  Afu/Icr  in  Bremen. 

INTERIOR  OF  SWAN  THEATRE. 


THE  GVLS 

Horixe  -BqoJce: 

Stvltoru/n  plena  font 


ME2A 


By  T.  DECTKAR. 

Lahore    ek 


Impriated  ad  £0Acfo/i,  for  1\.S. 

16  09. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

How    a    Gallant   should  behaue    himself 
in  a  Play-bovse. 


HE  theater  is  your  Poets 
Royal  Exchange,  vpon 
which  their  Muses,  (J, 
are  now  turnd  to  Mer- 
chants,) meeting,  barter 
away  that  light  com- 
modity of  words  for  a 
lighter  ware  then  words, 
Plaudit esy  and  the  breath  of  the  great  Beast  ; 
which  ( like  the  threatnings  of  two  Cowards ) 
vanish  all  into  air.  Platers  and  their  Factors^ 
who  put  away  the  stuffe,  and  make  the  best 
of  it  they  possibly  can  (as  indeed  tis  their 
parts  so  to  doe )  your  Gallant,  your  Courtier, 
and  your  Capten  had  wont  to  be  the  sound- 
est paymaisters;  and  I  thinke  are  still  the 

surest 
[49] 


The     G v  I  s     H  o  r  n  e   -    B o o k e 

surest  chapmen:  and  these,  by  meanes  that 
their  heades  are  well  stockt,  deale  upo  this 
comical  freight  by  the  grosse:  when  your 
Groundling^  and  gallery-Commoner  buyes  his 
sport  by  the  penny,  and,  like  a  Hagler>  is 
glad  to  vtter  it  againe  by  retailing. 

Sithence  then  the  place  is  so  free  in  enter- 
tainment, allowing  a  stoole  as  well  to  the 
Farmers  sonne  as  to  your  Templer :  that  your 
Stinkard  has  the  selfe-same  libertie  to  be 
there  in  his  Tobacco-Fumes,  which  your 
sweet  Courtier  hath :  and  that  your  Car-man 
and  Tinker  claime  as  strong  a  voice  in  their 
suffrage,  and  sit  to  giue  iudgement  on  the 
plaies  life  and  death,  as  well  as  the  prowdest 
Momus  among  the  tribe  of  Critick:  It  is  fit  £ 
hee,  whom  the  most  tailors  bils  do  make 
roome  for,  when  he  comes,  should  not  be 
basely  (like  a  vyoll)  casd  vp  in  a  corner. 

Whether  therefore  the  gatherers  of  the 
publique  or  priuate  Playhouse  stand  to  re- 
ceiue  the  afternoones  rent,  let  our  Gallant 
(hauing  paid  it)  presently  aduance  himselfe 
vp  to  the  Throne  of  the  Stage,  I  meane 
not  into  the  Lords  roome  (which  is  now  but 
the  Stages  Suburbs):  No,  those  boxes,  by 
the  iniquity  of  custome,  conspiracy  of  wait- 
ing-women 


The     G v / s     H  o  r n e   -    B o o k e 

ing-women  and  Gentlemen-Ushers,  that  there 
sweat  together,  and  the  couetousnes  of 
Sharers,  are  contemptibly  thrust  into  the 
reare,  and  much  new  Satten  is  there  dambd, 
by  being  smothred  to  death  in  darknesse. 
But  on  the  very  Rushes  where  the  Com- 
medy  is  to  daunce,  yea,  and  vnder  the 
state  of  Cambises  himselfe  must  our  fethered 
Estridgey  like  a  piece  of  ordnance,  be  planted 
valiantly  (because  impudently) beating  downe 
the  mewes  and  hisses  of  the  opposed  ras- 
cality. 

For  do  but  cast  vp  a  reckoning,  what  large 
cummings-in  are  pursd  vp  by  sitting  on  the 
Stage.  First  a  conspicuous  Eminence  is 
gotten  ;  by  which  meanes,  the  best  and  most 
essenciall  parts  of  a  Gallant  (good  cloathes, 
a  proportionable  legge,  white  hand,  the 
Persian  lock,  and  a  tollerable  beard )  are  per- 
fectly reuealed. 

By  sitting  on  the  stage,  you  have  a  signd 
patent  to  engrosse  the  whole  commodity  of 
Censure;  may  lawfully  presume  to  be  a 
Girder ;  and  stand  at  the  helme  to  steere  the 
passage  of  scenes;  yet  no  man  shall  once 
offer  to  hinder  you  from  obtaining  the  title 
of  an  insolent,  ouer-weening  Coxcombe. 

By 
[Si] 


The     G v I s     Horne-Booke 

By  sitting  on  the  stage,  you  may  (with- 
out travelling  for  it)  at  the  very  next  doore 
aske  whose  play  it  is :  and,  by  that  g)uest  of 
Inquiry,  the  law  warrants  you  to  auoid  much 
mistaking:  if  you  know  not  *  author,  you 
may  raile  against  him:  and  peraduenture  so 
behaue  your  selfe,  that  you  may  enforce  the 
Author -to  know  you.  .  .  . 

By  sitting  on  the  stage,  you  may  (with 
small  cost)  purchase  the  deere  acquaintance 
of  the  boyes:  haue  a  good  stoole  for  six- 
pence: at  any  time  know  what  particular 
part  any  of  the  infants  present:  get  your 
match  lighted,  examine  the  play-suits  lace, 
and  perhaps  win  wagers  vpon  laying  tis 
copper,  &c.  And  to  conclude,  whether  you 
be  a  foole  or  a  Justice  of  peace,  a  Cuckold, 
or  a  Capten,  a  Lord-Maiors  sonne,  or  a 
dawcocke,  a  knaue,  or  an  vnder-Sherife ;  of 
what  stamp  soeuer  you  be,  currant,  or 
counterfet,  the  Stage,  like  time,  will  bring 
you  to  most  perfect  light  and  lay  you  open : 
neither  are  you  to  be  hunted  from  thence, 
though  the  Scarcrows  in  the  yard  hoot  at 
you,  hisse  at  you,  spit  at  you,  yea,  throw  durt 
euen  in  your  teeth:  tis  most  Gentlemanlike 
patience  to  endure  all  this,  and  to  laugh 

at 


The     G  v I s     H  o  r  n  e   -    B o o k e 

at  the  silly  Animals:  but 'if  the  Rabble, 
with  a  full  throat,  crie,  away  with  the  foole, 
you  were  worse  than  a  madman  to  tarry  by 
it :  for  the  Gentleman,  and  the  foole  should 
neuer  sit  on  the  Stage  together. 

Mary,  let  this  obseruation  go  hand  in  hand 
with  the  rest :  or  rather,  like  a  country-seru- 
ing-man,  some  fiue  yards  before  them. 
Present  not  your  selfe  on  the  Stage  (espe- 
cially at  a  new  play )  vntill  the  quaking  pro- 
logue hath  (by  rubbing)  got  culor  into  his 
cheekes,  and  is  ready  to  giue  the  trumpets 
their  Cue,  that  hees  vpon  point  to  enter: 
for  then  it  is  time,  as  though  you  were  one 
of  the  properties,  or  that  you  dropt  out  of  * 
Hangings,  to  creepe  from  behind  the  Arras, 
with  your  Tripos  or  three-footed  stoole  in 
one  hand,  and  a  teston  mounted  betweene  a 
forefinger  and  a  thumbe  in  the  other:  for  if 
you  should  bestow  your  person  vpon  the 
vulgar,  when  the  belly  of  the  house  is  but 
halfe  full,  your  apparell  is  quite  eaten  vp, 
the  fashion  lost,  and  the  proportion  of  your 
body  in  more  danger  to  be  deuoured  then  if 
it  were  serued  vp  in  the  Counter  amongst 
the  Powltry:  auoid  that  as  you  would  the 
Bastome.  It  shall  crowne  you  with  rich 

commendation 
[53] 


The     Gvls     Home   -    Booke 

commendation,  to  laugh  alowd  in  the  mid- 
dest  of  the  most  serious  and  saddest  scene 
of  the  terriblest  Tragedy:  and  to  let  that 
clapper  (your  tongue)  be  tost  so  high,  that 
all  the  house  may  ring  of  it:  your  Lords  vse 
it;  your  Knights  are  Apes  to  the  Lords,  and 
do  so  too:  your  Inne-a-court-man  is  Zany 
to  the  Knights,  and  (mary  very  scuruily) 
comes  likewise  limping  after  it:  bee  thou  a 
beagle  to  them  all,  and  neuer  lin  snuffing, 
till  you  haue  scented  them :  for  by  talking 
and  laughing  (like  a  Plough-man  in  a  Mor- 
ris) you  heap  Pelion  vpon  Ossay  glory  vpon 
glory:  As  first,  all  the  eyes  in  the  galleries 
will  leaue  walking  after  the  Players,  and 
onely  follow  you:  the  simplest  dolt  in  the 
house  snatches  vp  your  name,  and  when  he 
meetes  you  in  the  streetes,  or  that  you  fall 
into  hi^  han4s  in  the  middle  of  a  Watch,  his 
word  shall  be  taken  for  you:  heele  cry  Hees 
sucb  a  gallant^  and  you  passe.  Secondly, 
you  publish  your  temperance  to.  the  world, 
in  that  you  seeme  not  to  resort  thither  to 
taste  vaine  pleasures  with  a  hungrie  appe- 
tite: but  onely  as  a  Gentleman  to  spend  a 
foolish  houre  or  two,  because  you  can  doe 
nothing  else :  Thirdly,  you  mightily  disrelish 

the 
[54] 


The     G v I s     H  o  r  n  e   -    B o o k e 

the  Audience,  and  disgrace  the  Author: 
marry,  you  take  vp  (though  it  be  at  the 
worst  hand)  a  strong  opinion  of  your  owne 
iudgement,  and  inforce  the  Poet  to  take  pity 
of  your  weakenesse,  and,  by  some  dedicated 
sonnet,  to  bring  you  into  a  better  paradice, 
onely  to  stop  your  mouth. 

If  you  can  (either  for  loue  or  money) 
prouide  your  selfe  a  lodging  by  the  water- 
side: for,  aboue  the  conuenience  it  brings  to 
shun  Shoulder-clapping,  it  addes  a  kind  of 
state  vnto  you,  to  be  carried  from  thence  to 
the  staires  of  your  Play-house :  hate  a  Sculler 
(remember  that)  worse  then  to  be  acquaint- 
ed with  one  o'  th'  Scullery.  No,  your 
Oares  are  your  onely  Sea-crabs,  boord  them, 
and  take  heed  you  neuer  go  twice  together 
with  one  paire:  often  shifting  is  a  great 
credit  to  Gentlemen;  and  that  diuiding  of 
your  fare  wil  make  the  poore  watersnaks  be 
ready  to  pul  you  in  peeces  to  enioy  your 
custome :  No  matter  whether  vpon  landing, 
you  haue  money  or  no :  you  may  swim  in 
twentie  of  their  boates  ouer  the  riuer  upon 
Ticket:  mary,  when  siluer  comes  in,  remem- 
ber to  pay  trebble  their  fare,  and  it  will  make 
your  Flounder-catchers  to  send  more  thankes 

after 

Css] 


The     Gv/s     Horne   -    Booke 

after  you,  when  you  doe  not  draw,  then  when 
you  doe;  for  they  know,  It  will  be  their 
owne  another  daie. 

Before  the  Play  begins,  fall  to  cardes :  you 
may  win  or  loose  ( as  Fencers  doe  in  a  prize ) 
and  beate  one  another  by  confederacie,  yet 
share  the  money  when  you  meete  at  supper: 
notwithstanding,  to  gul  the  Ragga-muffins 
that  stand  aloofe  gaping  at  you,  throw  the 
cards  (hauing  first  torne  foure  or  fiue  of 
them)  round  about  the  Stage,  iust  vpon  the 
third  sound,  as  though  you  had  lost :  it  skils 
not  if  the  foure  knaues  ly  on  their  backs, 
and  outface  the  Audience :  theres  none  such 
fooles  as  dare  take  exceptions  at  them,  be- 
cause, ere  the  play  go  off,  better  knaues  than 
they  will  fall  into  the  company. 

Now  sir,  if  the  writer  be  a  fellow  that  hath 
either  epigrammd  you,  or  hath  had  a  flirt  at 
your  mistris,  or  hath  brought  either  your 
feather,  or  your  red  beard,  or  your  little  legs 
&c.  on  the  stage,  you  shall  disgrace  him 
worse  then  by  tossing  him  in  a  blancket,  or 
giuing  him  the  bastinado  in  a  Tauerne,  if,  in 
the  middle  of  his  play  (bee  it  Pastoral  or 
Comedy,  Morall  or  Tragedie)  you  rise  with 
a  screwd  and  discontented  face  from  your 

stoole 

[56] 


The     G v I s     Horne-Booke 

stoole  to  be  gone :  no  matter  whether  the 
Scenes  be  good  or  no ;  the  better  they  are 
the  worse  do  you  distast  them :  and,  beeing 
on  your  feet,  sneake  not  away  like  a  coward, 
but  salute  all  your  gentle  acquaintance,  that 
are  spred  either  on  the  rushes,  or  on  stooles 
about  you,  and  draw  what  troope  you  can 
from  the  stage  after  you :  the  Mimicks  are 
beholden  to  you,  for  allowing  them  elbow 
roome :  their  Poet  cries,  perhaps,  a  pox  go 
with  you,  but  care  not  for  that,  theres  no 
musick  without  frets. 

Mary,  if  either  the  company,  or  indisposi- 
tion of  the  weather  binde  you  to  sit  it  out, 
my  counsell  is  then  that  you  turne  plain  Ape, 
take  vp  a  rush,  and  tickle  the  earnest  eares 
of  your  fellow  gallants,  to  make  other  fooles 
fall  a  laughing  :  mewe  at  passionate  speeches, 
blare  at  merrie,  finde  fault  with  the  musicke, 
whew  at  the  childrens  Adlion,  whistle  at  the 
songs:  and  aboue  all,  curse  the  sharers,  that 
whereas  the  same  day  you  had  bestowed 
forty  shillings  on  an  embrodered  Felt  and 
Feather,  (scotch-fashion)  for  your  mistres 
in  the  Court,  within  two,  houres  after,  you 
encounter  with  the  very  same  block  on  the 
stage,  when  the-  haberdasher  swore  to  you 

the 

[57] 


The     G  v  /  s     H  o  r  n  e   -    B  o  o  k  e 

the    impression  was  extant  but  that    morn- 
ing. 

To  conclude,  hoard  vp  the  finest  play- 
scraps  you  can  get,  vpon  which  your  leane 
wit  may  most  sauourly  feede,  for  want  of 
other  stuffe,  when  the  Arcadian  and  Euphu- 
ized  gentlewomen  haue  their  tongues  sharp- 
ened to  set  vpon  you :  that  qualitie  ( next  to 
your  shittlecocke )  is  the  onely  furniture  to 
a  Courtier  thats  but  a  new  beginner,  and  is 
but  in  his  A  B  C  of  complement.  The 
next  places  that  are  fild,  after  the  Play-houses 
bee  emptied,  are  ( or  ought  to  be )  Tauernes : 
into  a  Tauerne  then  let  vs  next  march,  where 
the  braines  of  one  Hogshead  must  be  beaten 
out  to  make  vp  another. 


[S8] 


Tbt  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle  is  produced  by  the 
English  Club  of  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University, 
under  the  direction  of  the  following  committee : 

HOMER  PRICE  EARLE,  Chairman 
RAYMOND  MACDONALD  ALDEN 
LEE  EMERSON  BASSETT 
ROY  OVERMAN  HADLEY 
HENRY  ROLAND  JOHNSON 
RUTH  LAIRD  KTMBALL 
SAMUEL  SWAYZE  SEWARD,  JR. 
CHARLES  WILBUR  THOMAS,  JR. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  book  of  the  play  the  com- 
mittee has  had  the  valuable  assistance  of 

MR.  JOHN  KESTER  BONNELL 
MRS.  ROGER  M.  ROBERTS 
Miss  K.  E.  TRAPHOGEN 
Miss  ANNE  SCOTT 
MR.  ERNEST  TURNER 


